Smash Cake

These pictures and the video say it all...our kid has inherited the sweet tooth we both have!

(by the way, you can turn off the music at the bottom in order to hear the video better)

Happy Birthday (a week late)

Well, our baby is officially ONE (as of last Saturday at 5:57am). We're a week late on this blog because the past week has been absolutely crazy. Since the last posting, Caleb continued on with his sickness for another 5 days or so. We went ahead and had the party anyhow since he wasn't running a fever and seemed to be doing okay that day. It was wonderful to have so many of our friends and family here to celebrate the special day.

We really enjoyed having the Sturm side of the family staying here for the weekend. It's always fun to hang out and see them love on Caleb for a weekend. This particular weekend we were especially grateful for how helpful everyone was with the little guy being so sick. Grandma Sue had the joy of changing many nasty diapers and was even thrown up on at one point...yuck! We also really appreciated Caleb's Great Aunt Denise flying in all the way from North Carolina to celebrate. The last time she saw him, he was two months old. Needless to say, he's changed a ton and we were kind of bummed that she couldn't see just how fun and energetic he has become. Despite being sick, Caleb loved having her here and we can't wait to hang out again in June.

After the very busy weekend, our visitors had to head home. Caleb had a pretty hard time saying goodbye this time. He's usually pretty good about letting Grandpa and Grandma go, but this time there were tears. It's sweet to realize that even though they live so far away, Caleb definitely knows who Grandma and Grandpa are and he loves them to pieces. After everyone left on Sunday, we thought Caleb might have been over the worst of his sickness as he started to eat and drink again. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and he ended up back at square one on Monday morning. Caleb and Mommy both spent the day very sick on Monday. Grandma Leslie was kind enough to watch Caleb while Daddy was at work. She also took him on Tuesday rather than taking him to the sitter so that we could both go to work. Finally, after three days of Grandma lovin' Caleb was back to himself on Wednesday. That was just in time for him to go to the doctor for his one year checkup. We started by finding out that in addition to the flu he had, he'd also managed to get an ear infection...poor guy! After being weighed and measured, we found out he's in the 90th percentile for height (nothing new there) and the 25th percentile for weight (some of that could be because he hadn't really eaten in five or six days). He's doing great developmentally and seems to be right on track with what a typical one year old should be doing. The doctor gave him a few shots and he was good to go! We just can't believe how quickly a whole year has gone!

Caleb's Impeccable Timing

It was a year ago today that I had the joy of working my last full day with a class that was quite the challenge. I thought I'd have a few days to rest up and get ready for the shift into motherhood, but Caleb had better plans. Only a few hours after ending a long last day, I went into labor. After an entire night of being awake, Caleb joined the world on March 21. I remember thinking over and over about how crazy it was that earlier that day I was at work having a fairly normal day with the kids.

Once again, Caleb has shown his great sense of timing (there is definitely some sarcasm behind that statement). His 1st birthday is tomorrow and we are planning to have many people over to celebrate the occasion. We are even lucky enough to have Tyler's family in from Carmi and his Aunt Denise flying in from North Carolina. The reason why I say that Caleb has shown his great sense of timing is because despite all the plans that have been made, he has gotten sick! It's not a small cold or anything minor, but stomach issues...which for a one-year-old means the whole world gets flipped upside down! We're hoping it's just a 24 hour thing and he'll be back in shape tomorrow because the party will still go on. We're sure some guests might opt out if he's still sick, but for those brave souls who are going to come, we plan to still enjoy the food and fun!

For now, just keep our little love in your prayers. We know that God listens and hope the He'll hear all those prayers that go up for him tonight and tomorrow!